@charliepearce: "My house is at approx 1 degree 28 minutes 40 seconds west.  If I were
to stick a vertical pole in my garden, would the shadow point due
north at 13:05:55 BST on a sunny day?  Or is that just too simple?
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    @spam: "   Charlie Pearce <email_address>
wrote:
<quote>
I don't know if your actual maths (ie the time you've
calculated) is right, but it must work in principle
like that, I would have thought - doesn't that logic
form the basis of such highly technically advanced
things like sundials?
VinceH
<url> 14/5/94-16/5/04 - Rest in peace"
    @mblundenatntlworlddotcom: "<quote>
No, that'll work, provided you (a) put it in a nice shady spot, and (b)
position a strong point light source due south of it.
Otherwise, I wouldn't guarantee anything.
Mark."
    @me: "On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 17:57:48 +0100, Charlie Pearce
<quote>
Possibly at mid-April, mid-June, 1st September and 24th December, when
the "equation of time" is zero. The Earth's orbit around the sun is
not a perfect cicle, and the Earth's axis is tilted, so the length of
a solar day varies by +17 to -14 minutes.
   <url>
Arthur."
    @jwkenne: "<quote>
Not entirely.  Because the orbit of the earth is not a perfect circle, 
the sun is not normally due south at terryalex@example.org.  Have you ever 
seen a globe with a giant figure-8 in the middle of the Pacific?  That 
figure-8 (properly called the analemma) is a diagram of the error.  For 
more information than you could possibly imagine, see 
<url>
John W. Kennedy
"But now is a new thing which is very old
that the rich make themselves richer and not poorer,
which is the true Gospel, for the poor's sake."
    Charles Williams.  "Judgement at Chelmsford""
    @charliepearce: "On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 19:21:08 -0400, "John W. Kennedy"
<quote>
I've never been to the middle of the Pacific.
Charlie
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